Stop Teaching Your Teenagers to “Just Say No to Drugs” While I appreciate Nancy Reagan’s war on drugs slogan to teach kids to simply say, “No,” I would like to challenge the effectiveness of this slogan with teenagers. Yes, my ten-year-old might benefit from the simplicity of this statement (should he ever read more…

Top 8 Reasons Why My Teenagers Aren’t Wearing Their Winter Coats They don’t want to. This is a good reason since they are becoming their own individual person who has unique likes and dislikes. Personally, I like wearing my winter coat. They don’t think they need it since they only go from the car/bus to read more…

Dear Well-Meaning Grandparents of the United States, For over a decade I have heard the laments of moms and dads across the country as they attempt to help their kids appreciate the material possessions they have. These parents don’t want to steal your joy from giving gifts when you visit or at Christmas read more…

Dear Indiana Department of Education, I received the letter that you sent last week with my two sons’ ISTEP access 16 digit codes. When I opened the letter, I had totally forgotten that we had never received the results. To be honest, I couldn’t even remember when they took these tests. I do remember that read more…

I don’t care if my kids get bad grades. You did read that correctly. I don’t care about what grades my kids get on tests, quizzes, projects, or report cards. But please don’t stop reading before you hear why. And maybe, this school year just maybe you may consider the impact of our culture’s incessant read more…

So much anticipation surrounds a child’s first year of “real school” that I often wonder if our fears, expectations, and worries can get the best of us. Presently I sit at a very safe distance from that first day of kindergarten. With all four of my kids in either college, high school, or middle school, read more…

It’s been years since I had to address the pleas of a child yelling, “MOM!!! I told him to stop doing that and he won’t stop!!!” These pleas for interference when a sibling violated the sanctity of someone’s personal space were once commonplace, probably daily. Probably multiple times on some days. But for me, those read more…

Wow! What a journey I’ve been on in better understanding the culture in which we all parent! I’m usually a minimal blog reader. I have a couple favorites, but I have never really spent much time leaving comments or getting into discussion groups. UNTIL NOW! (LIKE The Humbled Homemaker on Facebook to better see the name-calling read more…

I think that I have survived this year’s end of school deluge of social media posts about friends’ kids who have: received the Straight A’s Award, the Best All-Around Student Award, the Art Award, or those kids who lettered in track, placed 2nd in the state for wrestling, set the pole vault record, or accepted read more…

After my youngest son’s 13th birthday next week, I will have four teenage sons living in my house. Crazy? Sure. Horrible? Not at all. It’s actually so much easier to enjoy my sons now as teens than when they were all toddlers and preschoolers a decade ago. Don’t believe the cultural stereotype that teenagers are read more…